An Ogoni Community Foundation Takes Shape: The Kiisi Trust Fund

In this segment, AGAG Executive Director, Niamani Mutima talks with Ese Emerhi, Project Director of the Kiisi Trust Fund (KTF) based in Port Harcourt in the Delta Region of Nigeria.

The KTF was established over a decade ago with part of the 2009 settlement of the Wiwa versus Royal Dutch Shell lawsuit. The lawsuit held Shell accountable for its role in the death of members of the Ogoni community, including Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders known as the Ogoni Nine. They protested Shell's operations in the Niger Delta. In 2016 TrustAfrica was hired to manage the KTF as a donor-advised fund and it began operations.

Emerhi discusses how and why KTF was established and describes its grants, scholarship, and intern programs to benefit the Ogoni people. She shares the challenges of working in a conflict environment where the environmental damage by international oil companies is an active legacy. She also shares the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local civil society organizations.

Learn more about the Kiisi Trust Fund HERE.

About Ese Emerhi

Ese has spent the last 20 years working in the international development field, supporting human rights defenders and organizations in the Middle East and North Africa region. As the project lead for the Kiisi Trust, she directs a multi-million donor-advised fund for the benefit of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria that has awarded small grants to over 30 local community-based organizations and other non-profits in Ogoniland. Prior to joining TrustAfrica, Ese worked as the Advocacy Program Manager for PIND Foundation in the Niger Delta. As a knowledge manager and online community manager at the World Bank Institutes’ Knowledge Exchange Unit, Ese developed and led strategy and member engagement for the WBI Community Managers of Practice and provided advisory and editorial support for the re-design and production of the 2nd Edition of the Art of Knowledge Exchange: A Guide for Practitioners..